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Faith in Business: Balancing Profit with Purpose · Closing Sales in Nigeria - Sales For The Nigerian Business Person: The Sales and Marketing Blueprint

• 0:02
  Hello and welcome to the show. Today we're going to look at
• 0:05
  something that I don't think I've spoken about at all on the
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  podcast and that is investing with faith, investing with
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  impact or doing business around ethical and value based
• 0:20
  criteria. Let me put it that way.
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  Now, the reason why I'm doing this is because at least from
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  the bunch of folks that I hang out around on LinkedIn, it looks
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  as if these ideas are now getting cache are becoming much
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  more popular nowadays. You know, people talking about
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  doing things around business that have environmental impact
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  or businesses that are supposed to have impact in the area of
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  let's say women's development or children protection, all these
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  sorts of things. So I figured let's just talk
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  about some of these things and see what perspective that we can
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  learn to the discourse when it comes to sales and business
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  development, looking at things from a sales and business
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  development perspective. So now, First off, the typical
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  conception of business, the usual idea that people have
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  about business is that business is immoral.
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  In other words, we don't bring morals into business.
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  So so long as business is making you money, then what's the
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  problem? So that's the typical idea that
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  most people have business on one end, morals on the other end.
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  But if you think about it just a little bit, you'll see that this
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  is not entirely accurate because we do have moral and ethical
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  considerations in every single thing that we do.
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  So moral right or wrong, ethical, how does, how is one
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  supposed to how, how should one conduct themselves?
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  So we have these considerations in every single thing that we
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  do. So even though the average
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  person listening to this podcast now thinks that business is
• 2:00
  immoral, morals are not a part of business.
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  That's not actually the case because they are moral and
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  ethical things to consider in absolutely every single thing
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  that we do. However, this whole debate about
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  shareholder value or money returns versus ethical,
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  religious, social, environmental concerns, in my own opinion,
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  it's too drawn out. Now, what do I mean by that?
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  If you listen to Western media, you know CNN Foxes and you know
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  that kind of media, they make it look as if all the people who
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  shout about shareholder value, how much returns are you giving
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  me as an investor, blah, blah, blah.
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  They make it look as if those people are on one end of the
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  spectrum. There are other people who talk
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  about ethical issues or religious issues, environmental
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  issues, social issues, as if they're on the other end of the
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  spectrum. Now that is not entirely the
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  case because there are some people who favour one over the
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  other, but we find out that there's a healthy tension that
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  has to remain for most businesses.
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  As in, yes, we're making money. And I think there's this whole
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  thing about was it Nike, Nike and some of those Americans and,
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  and other UK brands that get labour from Bangladesh and other
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  parts of the world. So yes, there is some of that
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  tension, shareholder value, we're making money.
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  But then on the other end, social impact of what it is that
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  we do, you know, are we putting people in unfavourable working
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  conditions? So it's not as if or for most
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  businesses anyway, you either have to pick one or the other,
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  how much money can I make, how many people can I impoverish or
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  how many people can I keep in poor working environments?
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  So there's usually some tension, but it doesn't have to be as
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  extremes. So these concerns will always be
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  there and that's the reason why some industries like the vice
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  industries, adult sexual entertainment, illicit drugs,
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  animal cruelty, blah, blah, blah.
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  That's the reason why if you check in different parts of the
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  world, whether Nigeria, Australia, America or whatever,
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  you see that those sectors in particular have concerns.
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  So I guess the good thing to know is that most of us are not
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  going to be in that situation that Nike is in or which other
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  company any you cash adrift, all these other companies, you're
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  not going to be in that situation where it's a matter of
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  how much money am I milking out and how many people am I
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  impoverishing or keeping in poor working environments.
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  But yes, I guess we have to consider it to some extent or
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  another because even if it's all catfish, you know, these are
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  some of the things that we have to consider the amount of profit
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  that I'm making. And then the women who are
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  drying the catfish, what are their working conditions?
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  What are their health benefits, if any?
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  What are their pay and all these sorts of things.
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  So anyway, I guess what I'm just trying to say is that there is
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  no business that is immoral and that morals don't go into it
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  because every single business that we do, we're going to have
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  moral things to consider. We are going to have ethical
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  things that we are going to consider.
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  So with this small debate, now introduction to debate for those
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  of you who are not aware, what is now the decision making
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  criteria for business? Should it be shareholder value
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  or money in my pocket? Or should it be ethical concerns
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  and all that other stuff? The answer is both.
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  So excuse me because if I'm going to pay attention to all
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  the ethical stuff and then we don't pay attention to how much
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  money enters my pocket, at the end of the day the business is
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  going to die. So back to the catfish example,
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  if somebody's going to get involved in the catfish business
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  and they see that for every 1000 there, they invest in the
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  catfish business well, because they want to make sure that the
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  women are paid well. The women who dried the fish are
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  paid well. The technology for drying the
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  fish is OK, let's well, I don't know if there's any alternative
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  to using wood firewood to dry out the fish.
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  But if there's some modern technology, let's say that OK,
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  the women are paid well, that modern technology, blah, blah,
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  blah. And if the business owners find
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  out that for every 1000 naira that they put inside, the only
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  thing that comes out as profit for them at the end of the day
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  is maybe 100 naira or 500 naira or whatever.
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  At some point they will say, you know what?
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  This thing is not worth my time, is not worth my investment, I'm
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  out. And then they'll move the money
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  to something else. So in this case, you will see
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  that if you're doing all ethical and you're not paying attention
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  to how much money goes into my pocket, the business will die.
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  So it has to be both. Then again, if you're going to
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  pay attention to money over ethics, then the society suffers
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  and then people are impoverished on an intellectual level, on a
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  spiritual level, on a financial level.
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  So it has to be both. We should be striving for both.
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  There should be a way for me to put some money in my pocket from
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  this catfish business. And there also has to be a way
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  to make sure that the women, usually older women who are the
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  ones drying this catfish and packaging it and everything,
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  making sure that the women have the best working conditions and
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  that they have good salaries that are paid, paid on time.
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  So it's not a matter of one over the other, but it is both.
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  So I think for the next episode, I would like us to look at one
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  question about whether we can invest in faith or make
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  decisions on faith or whether faith can serve us.
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  And as a business or an investment criteria, can we use
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  faith to decide which businesses we go into?
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  Or is it just wishful thinking to say that we are being guided
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  by faith? Or can we say that it's just a
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  non rational thinking to say we're going into business and
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  we're going to be guided by faith?
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  This can't be a question that we will ignore because there's a
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  whole bunch of us who are involved in business and who are
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  Christian. In fact, some people will say
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  that we're Christians first before we are business people
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  and whatever other thing it is that we do.
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  So for the next broadcast episode, that is going to be one
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  question that we're going to tackle.
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  Can faith serve as a business criteria, investment criteria,
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  business decision making criteria?
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  So we'll consider all that in the next episode.
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  And don't worry, in case you are scared of these issues, you can
• 8:52
  stay here. This is not going to be an in
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  depth philosophical treaties because that is beyond my area
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  of specialty. I'm not a philosopher.
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  I just happen to be an ordinary human being just like you, who
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  happens to be good at or really interested at selling and
• 9:11
  figuring out ways to sell stuff. But I do think that there are
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  interesting questions for us to tackle here.
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  So don't worry, don't run away. Maybe two or three episodes and
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  then we'll be done with this and then we can get back to being
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  greedy and talking about nothing else but money.
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  For those of you who are like me and who are greedy sobs, I want
• 9:29
  to see how much money that we can make.
• 9:31
  So thank you very much for your time and attention.
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  I'll catch you guys at the next episode.
• 9:35
  Remember to connect with me on WhatsApp.
• 9:37
  The phone number is 08064662140. The country code is +234.
• 9:44
  For those of you who are not Nigerian, also connect with me
• 9:47
  on LinkedIn. My name is Tavishima Ayede, I'm
• 9:49
  the host of the show. You can confirm the spelling of
• 9:52
  my name so you can search for me appropriately and you can also
• 9:55
  confirm my e-mail address in case e-mail is your thing.
• 9:58
  You can confirm all these details from the excuse me from
• 10:02
  the link. We're currently listening to
• 10:03
  this episode, so thanks for your time and attention.
• 10:06
  I'll catch you guys at the next episode.